Andorra in 2000

Andorra had historically been a haven for smugglers, especially traffickers in illegal cigarettes. In 2000 concern about smuggling prompted a crackdown by the antifraud office of the European Union (EU), during which the possibility of bringing suit against several American cigarette manufacturers was raised. In order to circumvent tax dodgers, the EU proposed a plan to withhold taxes up front from interest paid into nonresidents’ bank accounts and to do away with banking secrecy laws in Andorra, Switzerland, and other countries. Other, more recent types of crime were also shadowing the valleys of the Pyrenees. In February a network of money launderers for a Colombian drug cartel selling cocaine in Great Britain and Spain was broken up by Spanish police; some of the laundered money was found in banks in Andorra.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced in June that Andorra ranked 10th in the world in the number of years (72.3) a person could be expected to live in full health. Japan was the healthiest country, with an expected 74.5 years of good health, while Sierra Leone, at 25.9 years, was at the bottom of the list. In WHO’s study of the world’s health care systems, Andorra ranked fourth.